Pedro Mascarenhas

Pedro Mascarenhas (c. 1484 Mértola, Portugal, † June 23, 1555 in Goa, India) was a Portuguese navigator, explorer and diplomat. Mascarenhas is considered the discoverer of the Mascarene Islands, whose namesake he is.

Life

Mascarenhas served in the fleet of the Portuguese Viceroy of India, Dom Garcia de Noronha, and was involved as a son of a wealthy family instrumental in the spice trade. When he learned during the circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope of local uprisings in the region of Goa in 1510, he separated from the rest of the fleet, trying to find a faster sea to rush the beleaguered Portuguese to help.

The then known route to India went along the East African coast to the north, where the Indian Ocean was crossed to land on the Indian Malabar Coast. Mascarenhas, however, sailed from the Cape of Good Hope, starting eastward in little-known waters and discovered in April 1512 Reunion Island, part of the archipelago, which was called Mascarene after him. For this archipelago include not only Réunion among others, the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues.

In the course of his career Mascarenhas was built by King Dom João III. appointed ambassador to Rome, where he represented the Portuguese interests in the Papal States. Mascarenhas was named in 1554 by Philip II to the Viceroy of Portuguese India, nine months after taking office, he passed away in Goa at the age of 71 years.